New tools could help in the fight against childhood obesity

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - The Pennington Biomedical Research Center launched a new tool to help combat childhood obesity.

The new vision is called the Childhood Obesity Treatment Toolkit. The goal of the program is to provide doctors with strategies to combat a child's weight issues.

The toolkit stresses the importance of family involvement and also talks about ways to put things like smartphone apps, pedometers, and other technologies into a weight management program.

"Today's children [are a part of] the first generation expected to live shorter lives than their parents due in large part to obesity.” says Dr. Amanda Staiano of Pennington Biomedical, "So it's very important that at an early age we reduce that weight and get them on a healthier trajectory."

According to the CDC, in 2012, more than one-third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.